VALUABLE WORK

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 306, 9 October 1935, Page 7

VALUABLE WORK

IRRIGATION AT SEAFIELD.

LINCOLN COLLEGE WANTS FARM.

(Special to the “ Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day,

The opinion that the Seafield irrigation farm should be continued as an experimental and instructional agency run by the Canterbury Agricultural College was expressed by members of the Board of Governors of the College yesterday. Regret was expressed by several members , that the farm was now being run by the Lands and Survey Department purely as a commercial venture, and after a long discussion, it was decided to write to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research stating that the College was willing to take ove.r the farm to demonstrate, for a period of not less than five years, the principles of irrigation of Canterbury land. The motion also asked the Department to make the necessary inquiries about the rental of the farm, and the provision of finance for carrying out the plan of the College. The discussion was introduced by a letter from Mr A. H. Flay, farm adviser to the College, which stated that the future of irrigation in Canterbury was clearly shown by the provision of a grant of £40,000 by the Government for it. The time was most, opportune,

therefore, for the instruction of farmers in the . handling of water on the farm, and the handling of the farm itself when* partially irrigated. The letter referred to the irrigation farm at Seafield, stating that it was at present being carried on solely as a commercial venture, and said that it would further the teaching of irrigation methods if the College took over the farm at a nominal rental. He understood., the letter continued, that the live and dead stock of the farm could be bought for about £ISOO, and he thought that

the farm itself could be made to pay the interest on this as well as its own running cost, if an annual grant of £250 was made for experimental purposes. Need for Instruction. Mr N. M. Orbell said that there was certainly a need for instructing farmers in the use of irrigation. Some farmers had the idea that if the water was laid on, that was all there was to irrigation, and many did not know how much water to use, when to use it, and the class of crops it could be used with.

, The Hon. D. Buddo said that five years was a reasonable time for the duration of experiments, and other members agreed with his contention that it was a pity to cease experimenting just when the results of experiments might be made known. A Commercial Venture. The chairman (Dr. H. G. Denham) said that the farm at present was being run. purely as a commercial venture, with the object of malting the farm pay, and although what water had already been provided was being used there was ho intention by the Department to. carry out any further work.

Mr J. R. D. Johns said that irrigation was one of the, things that was "going to make Canterbury” in a few years, and if the College could teach young men the principles of irrigation as well as those of ordinary farming it would be doing a great service. Mr W. O. Rennie said that only a year or so more was wanted to determine . the success of the experiments, and it was a pity that they had been discontinued.

Mr Johns said that there was no reason why the farm should not pay for itself if it could be bought for a reasonable price. Professor R. E,' Alexander referred to one valuable experiment that had been carried out, when a paddock had been irrigated to show farmers that a certain class of land would not pay even if irrigated, and Dr. Denham agreed that experiments such as that, in which the things the average man would do were done so that the result would be plain, were extremely worth while. After further discussion the motion asking the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research to make inquiries about the College taking over the * farm was put and carried.

IRRIGATION SCHEMES.

INCLUSION IN GOVERNMENT’S

PLANS URGED.

(Special to the “Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, October 8. Sympathetic, consideration was promised by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) to a request made by Mr T.- D. Burnett (C., Temuka) in the House of Representatives to-day, that water-supply and irrigation schemes should be _ regarded as of prime importance in the Government’s plans for the absorption of the unemployed. Mr Burnett said that there was every prospect of a serious drought in Canterbury and North Otago, and as those territories _ had suffered of late years from a series of droughts he asked whether the Prime Minister would make it a point of Government policy that Public Works funds and Unemployment Board funds should be applied first to the construction of reticulated water supply schemes and irrigation schemes.